Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Fires in Australia

Climate change believer or not, weather patterns certainly appear to be changing.

A few days ago I caught some BBC TV coverage of the record floods in the UK. Moments before I had received the weather forecast and long term outlook for my own part of the world which was in stark contrast. I could see and smell the heavy blanket of smoke drifting across the dying landscape around my country property on the mid North Coast of NSW that was now being savaged by bush fires.

The east of Australia, and probably the rest of the continent, is in the grip of the worst drought in recorded history with some areas not having decent rain for years. Significant rivers are bone dry and major towns running out of water.

The farming community has been hardest hit with stock numbers falling as the suicide rate of our gallant farmers rises.

These are tough times for tough people.

The beautiful and heavily wooded NSW north coast and southern Queensland regions are tinder dry. Established forests and gardens including mine are dying. Temperatures heading towards the 40’s and strong winds spell disaster. The early declaration of the fire season was a sign of things to come. More than 250 homes were destroyed by bush fire in northern NSW last week along with 500 service buildings with many other properties damaged. Hundreds of people have been displaced and turned to emergency centers and we have not entered summer yet.

The carnage now extends to Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia

Regrettably, conditions have snared one of our own.

Peter Knox-Dick (better known as “Rubymorgan” when he last appeared on TM) lives just a little south of me at Hillville.

This fire has been burning for weeks and sometimes I could see the flames and smoke in his area from my southern balcony. I did a phone check in with Peter at 4.19pm on Saturday afternoon and found him in good spirits as his house and property had been saved after 3 or 4 water bombing runs by the fire aircraft over the previous days.

Sadly, Peter decided to once again clean out his gutters soon after my call and managed to fall off the roof cracking his skull and breaking vertebrae. He was air lifted to the Royal North Shore Hospital where he remains in a coma.

Our thoughts and prayers are with him.

Whether your next threat is flood or fire (and I include our friends in bush fire affected US of A) take care Morganeers

Attached are some photos of the fires in our area.(not taken by me)


On the beach at Darawank very close the popular Forster/Tuncurry township



The loss of wild life has been horrendous



This little bloke was just looking for a safe tree.....

Exhausted fire fighters

Daughter is out in Northern NSW at the moment looking after a 96,000 acre station.

Thankfully, not yet had any bush fires but only had about 25mm of rain in last 2 years. Livestock are only surviving on water from wells and this has almost dried up.

It is terrible to see the destruction that these bush fires are causing.

Australia is a fantastic country with amazing wildlife, I hope it has the resilience to recover from this.

Gary thanks for the update.
I have relatives in NSW and friends in WA.Have been watching the news,such as it is here, and keeping an eye on the online news services.
Thanks for sharing the photos, too. Those, and the ones online bring the scale of the disaster into perspective.
Please keep us up to date on Peter, too. He's quite a character!
Wish there was some way we could send you our floods...

That picture of the Koala ......crickey poor little bear !

Thanks for sharing those harrowing images Gary truly dreadful times for you and the Californians as you say, stay safe.

Very frightening and tragic for those who lose property and livestock and a terrible toll is inflicted on the wildlife. Every time I see the news I think of all my friends and relatives who are facing this unprecedented bout of bushfires and all the beautiful places where I have been that are now a scene of devastation with blackened bare trunks.

My Mother's property, now owned by my sister and her husband is out along the Oxley Highway from Wauchope and has 80 forest. My brother and his wife (and her family) are also out to the Northwest of Wauchope. My youngest brother and his wife have a house on the northern outskirts of Sydney, also surrounded by bush even if not close to the house. He was fortunate to be able to get some off duty time from the Ambulance Service when the fires were near his home. I am sure they are having a busy time of it too.

I know what it's like to be at the sharp end of this as I spent some time in a Civil defence Rescue Squad and as a volunteer bush fire fighter. These things can move at an unbelievable speed and I have had to run for my life on two occasions. Fortunately we were in a position where we had an escape route.

Day break here now Peter and the wind has dropped but the smoke is still heavy, no sight of fire near me in Wingham.
Areas around Port Macquarie and Wauchope have had fires burning for weeks now.
I even canceled our Club run to “Port” for fear of having 30 odd cars caught in the mess.

On yesterday’s run to Hallidays Point Bakery we drove many K’s on the Pacific Highway that was burnt out on both sides.

Horrendous. My thoughts are with you guys down under.

I spoke to my brother who is an ambulance officer this morning (Sydney time). The poor bugger was having a sleep in because he goes on night shift today. He said that there has been some rain which has eased the situation a little but not enough to put an end to it.

Just spoke to my sister who is near Wauchope, 400km north of Sydney, and she tells me there is a sprinkling of rain there too. Unfortunately they have lost some of their fruit trees due to the drought and leaves are dropping off the eucalyptus trees increasing the fire hazard.

Many of the fires are covering tens of thousands of hectares and the largest, in the Wollemi area, is covering 185,900 hectares. To put that in perspective that is an area greater than many English counties. Worcestershire county covers an area of 173,529 hectares.

At Port Macquarie (the coastal town near my sister's place) the Koala Hospital has estimated that around 350 koalas have perished in the bushfires, but the loss of habitat and important food trees will put those who have survived into difficulty.

Light rain here tonight and some thunder storm activity in the area but not enough to make a difference. Over one million hectares of bush land has been burnt out in NSW since the start of the 2019 fire season. Its going to be a long summer....